Malawi international Temwa Chawinga has become the first African woman to secure a place in the top 10 of the women\u2019s Ballon d\u2019Or rankings.\n<\/p>\n
The development was announced on Monday, during the ongoing 2026 Ballon d\u2019Or ceremony at the London Palladium in England.\n<\/p>\n
The forward\u2019s achievement marks a major milestone for African women\u2019s football, placing her among the elite players recognised in the prestigious individual award.\n<\/p>\n
Born on September 20, 1998, in Rumphi District, Malawi, Chawinga represents Kansas City Current in the United States\u2019 National Women\u2019s Soccer League and the Malawi national team.<\/p>\n
She established herself as a prolific goalscorer during her time with Wuhan Jianghan University in China, winning four consecutive Chinese Women\u2019s Super League titles from 2020 to 2023.<\/p>\n
Since joining Kansas City Current, she has added the 2024 NWSL x Liga MX Femenil Summer Cup and the 2025 NWSL Shield to her list of honours. <\/p>\n
Her individual achievements include back-to-back NWSL Most Valuable Player awards and Golden Boot titles in 2024 and 2025.<\/p>\n
She also won the Chinese Women\u2019s Super League Golden Boot in 2022 and 2023 before receiving the International Federation of Football History and Statistics\u2019 World\u2019s Best Top Goal Scorer award in 2023.\n<\/p>\n
Other players who featured in the Ballon d\u2019Or top 10 included Haiti\u2019s Melchie Dumornay, Norway\u2019s Caroline Graham Hansen, Spain\u2019s Patri Guijarro, Denmark\u2019s Pernille Harder, Poland\u2019s Ewa Pajor, Spain\u2019s Cl\u00e0udia Pina and Alexia Putellas, England\u2019s Alessia Russo, and Jamaica\u2019s Khadija Shaw.\n<\/p>\n
The selection brought together players from Europe, Africa and the Caribbean, underscoring the international spread of talent in women\u2019s football.\n<\/p>\n
Chawinga\u2019s historic placement further strengthens Africa\u2019s presence in the global women\u2019s game and reflects her growing reputation as one of its leading forwards.\n<\/p>\n
Source: <\/p>\n
Malawi international Temwa Chawinga has become the first African woman to secure a place in the top 10 of the women\u2019s Ballon d\u2019Or rankings. The development was announced on Monday,… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1557","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1557","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1557"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1557\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}